The Consequences of Sin

1 John 4:6  “ We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error” (KJV).

1 John 4:16  “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him” (KJV).

            Godloves us even though we are sinners.  However, he hates the sins that we do.  While God is a God of love, he is also the God of light.  He is a holy God who has to deal with sin.  The discipline he gives when we disobey God is not also for our own good but also for the glory of his name.  With the first sin in this world, God had to discipline the serpeant, Eve and Adam.

            All three-Adam, Eve and the serpent-were cursed.  The serpent was cursed where all the livestock and wild animals would hate him.  He had limited mobility where he lost his legs and would have to slither on his belly to travel.  He could only eat things smaller than him.  Since these creatures scurried along the ground, he would be swallowing a lot of dust with his meal.  God also made humans and serpents enemies.  His offspring would bite her offspring on the heel and her offspring would crush his offspring’s head.  While this is true that some people will not blink an eye when they kill a snake, this is also symbolic.  This is a prophecy of God sending Jesus to the earth to save mankind and to defeat Satan.  Even the New Testament supports the prophecy made in Genesis:

Galatians 3:16 “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.  He saith not, And to the seeds, as of many; but as for ones, and to thy seeds, which is of Christ” (KJV).

Romans 16:20 “And the God of Peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen” (KJV).

We all face a struggle with issues throughout our daily lives.  Some of us may need to make a decision if one choice is better than the other one.  Sometimes we wonder if we are making the smartest and wisest choices.  We wonder if God will be happy with what we decide to do.  While we want to live a life of peaches and cream, this will not happen until Jesus defeats Satan at the right time.  Some of us may ask why Satan has not already been overthrown.  This all is in God’s plan for humankind.  His timing is the perfect timing.

God next cursed the woman since she was the first of the two to eat the forbidden fruit.  She would desire after her husband, meaning that she would lust after him.  This may not sound like a curse, but it is.  God had caused Eve and all her female descendants to have pain when giving birth to children.  Eve could have decided not to have a sexual relationship with her husband to avoid the pain of giving birth.  However, God caused Eve to desire her husband so she would want to be intimately involved with him.

Finally, Adam was cursed. He could have ignored Eve when she gave him the fruit.  However, he chose her over the Lord.  He disobeyed God because of the woman.  He was cursed by having to work.  While everything in the garden was abundant-and he did not have to lift a finger to grow the fruit-he lost that privilege when he sinned.  Now, Adam had to do back breaking work to grow food.  Adam would have to till the land by hand (tractors were not around back then).  He would have to fight with weeds, storms, floods and barren land.

How many of us wish that we did not have to go to work to make a living?  What would you do if you had twenty-four hours a day where you did not hve to work?  I wish I did not have to work and actually have a plan of what I would do in my free time.  It would involve two hours of Bible Study, writing in my blog, doing some play time on my computer-I admit, I am addicted to Pogo-reading and working on a project.  I have some home improvement and sewing projects that are on my to-do list.  That would still give me plenty of time for me to be a serving wife and mother to my husband and children.

Genesis 4:7:  "If thou does well, shalt thou not be accepted?  And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.  And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him” (KJV).

Song of Solomon 7:10:  “I am my beloved’s, and his desire is towards me” (KJV).

The above verses symbolize the difficulties of Adam and Eve’s descendants.  Look around you.  How many people do you know are divorced?  The statistics are constantly on the rise.  Some wives may be in an abusive situation.  Some spouses are not faithful to his or her partner.  Some couples just simply cannot communicate with each other.  It may be that the wife wants to be the dominating one in the relationship.  However, Eve was cursed where she was no longer Adam’s equal.  Most married females during the Biblical era played the role of the serving wife.

Genesis 2:16-17 (KJV)

¹⁶ And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

¹⁷ But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

God gave us freewill, so we can choose to return the love to him or choose not to.  Adam and Eve used their free will to go against what God commanded them not to do.  This act of defiance showed that they rebelled against God and hurt their relationship with him.  However, this did not mean that God stopped loving them.

            When Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, he already knew that they had done just that.  Since they had rebelled against them, he had to enforce the penalty of death.  However, he did not cause them to die at that time.  Since he loved the future human race, he gave them a chance to atone for their sins and protested them from the elements as Genesis 3:21 states, ^2” Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them” (KJV). This first sacrifice was a foreshadowing of redemption when Jesus Christ would come down to earth and die on the cross for all sins. 

1 Corinthians 5:21 “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (KJV),.

            Since there are consequences for sin, Adam and Eve would eventually die for rebelling against God and sinning.  However, since God is willing to forgive and restore fallen humans he gave the rebellious and  sinful humans a chance to return to a realtionship with him.

            As Christians, when we know and accept that our sins are forgiven because of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, we have an eternal home in heaven.  When Jesus ascended to heaven, he went there to prepare a place for us.  We experience hard work, see death and suffer.  However, the bright spot is looking to a new life when we are in the presence of God.

John 14:2-3   “In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (KJV).

Revelation 21:3-4  (KJV)

3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

⁴ And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

            To prepare yourself, study the Bible to understand God's word.  Walk in freedom each day and continue to keep your eye on your eternal home in heaven.

Genesis 3:8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.